Huge pit or Skyscraper?

Image © Santiago Calatrava

Due to severe financial problems, the site where it was supposed to be the "Chicago Spire" - the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere - remains since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, as a huge pit in the cityscape of Chicago.

It consists of a twisted skyscraper 2000 feet high, designed by Santiago Calatrava, the famous Spanish architect that authored works such as the City of Arts and Science in Valencia, the Turning Torso in Malmö, or the Orient Station in Lisbon, and whose name has recently been associated with several controversies related to construction and invoicing, and that was even sentenced to pay damages of nearly EUR 3 million for errors detected in the works of the Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo, Asturias, Spain .

Intended to be a luxury condo, the "Chicago Spire" captured the people's fascination, to the point of having been sold a third of the over 1,100 apartments until 2010, when the works stagnated for failing to obtain financing for the construction, estimated at over 1.5 billion U.S. $, followed by a protracted legal battle in several courts.

Image © Santiago Calatrava

Finally, this situation may be about to change. The developer Garrett Kelleher has been struggling in order to obtain legal approval will enable resuming the project, considering an investment of U.S. $ 135 million by the Atlas Apartment Holdings LLC.

Image © Santiago Calatrava

"Given the ongoing recovery in the Chicago property market, the timing is better now than when this project commenced," Kelleher said in a statement. "I am delighted to have found a partner who believes in the project as passionately as I do."

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